THE BEGINNINGS

The story of the special group of sources I will deal with began with a dramatic event. In August in 79 CE, the ancient volcano Vesuvius, which dominated the bay of Naples, unexpectedly erupted.

The lovely Campanian landscape with its flourishing small towns, profitable agricultural units (villae rusticae) and fashionable country houses was taken by surprise by the extraordinary power and destruction of the eruption. Streaming lava, raining ash and a disastrous conflagration destroyed all life in a few hours. Pliny the Younger reports the earthquake and eruption in impressive language (6,16):

The buildings around us were shaking [...] and we were very scared that they would collapse [...] Also we saw the sea dragged back into itself and then apparently driven back by the shaking of the earth [...] Indeed, the shoreline had retreated, and many sea creatures were stranded on the dry sand. In the other direction a terrible black cloud, split by jagged and quivering bursts of fiery air, gaped open to reveal tall columns of flame [...]^[369]

This vivid description comes from an eye-witness: at the time of the eruption the author was staying with his uncle, Pliny the Elder,^[370] very close to the event. The older Pliny served as the commander of the Roman fleet, stationed at Misenum; his close relatives visited him for a pleasant stay at the seaside.

Pliny the Elder, a keen researcher of nature, acted seemingly without fear. The scientist in him was curious, and the commander felt it his duty to rescue human life - and sacrifice his own (6,16):

My uncle, a man of great intellectual curiosity, decided that this was a phenomenon of great importance, which had to be investigated at closer quarters [...] He took some warships out to sea, taking his place on board to help [...] Soon ash was falling on the ships, hotter and thicker as they drew nearer [...] Meanwhile fires erupted from different points all over Mount Vesuvius, and the towering flames gave off a light whose brightness and clarity contrasted with the shadows of the night [...] For the buildings were being shaken by frequent and strong tremors, and they seemed to move to and fro as if they had been shifted from their foundations [...] Then the flames and the smells of sulphur that preceded them made the others decide to flee and woke up my uncle. Leaning on two slaves, he got up, and straight away he collapsed [...]^[371]

There was no help for the terrified population: an elementary vis maior (‘accident of nature or human violence’),^[372] the natural disaster wiped out all life in a zone of 10 to 20 km.

However, the impact of these forces of nature was to prove lucky for later generations, especially for archaeologists, historians and legal historians. Although Pompeii and Herculaneum, the most important among the surrounding settlements, were lost to the Romans, they survived well preserved for posterity. Some archaeologists call them ‘frozen in time’ - the valuable evidence of ancient culture remained mostly untouched, covered with a thick coating of petrified volcanic lava and ash.^[373] The modern archaeological sites and museums offer a fascinating mosaic of living, working or contracting in first-century Italy. The topic of the current study will comprise but one segment from this mosaic: the monetary transactions of women in everyday legal life.

<< | >>

↑

Source: Plessis P.J. du. (ed.). New Frontiers: Law and Society in the Roman World. Edinburgh University Press,2013. — 256 p.. 2013

THE BEGINNINGS

More on the topic THE BEGINNINGS: